Sun shines on The Hangover at the UK box office

Despite balmy weather, the Todd Phillips comedy has managed to replicate its US success to become 2009's biggest comedy debut on this side of the Atlantic, eclipsing local hero Ken Loach's Looking for Eric

Sun shines on The Hangover at the UK box office

Despite balmy weather, the Todd Phillips comedy has managed to replicate its US success to become 2009's biggest comedy debut on this side of the Atlantic, eclipsing local hero Ken Loach's Looking for Eric

Tuesday 16 June 2009 08.12 EDT
First published on Tuesday 16 June 2009 08.12 EDT

When analysts looked ahead to the 2009 lineup of summer movies, not many had much to say about a stag-weekend comedy starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. But, hot on the heels of its barnstorming success in the US, Todd Phillips's The Hangover opened in the UK this weekend with £3.19m, including £444,000 in previews, the biggest comedy debut so far this year.

The Hangover is the third major male-buddy comedy of 2009, following Role Models (which opened with £2.33m including £523,000 in previews) and I Love You, Man (£1.12m, including £250,000 from previews). Of the three, it has the least in the way of balancing romantic elements and appealing female characters. But if backers Warner Bros had any concerns about the film's appeal to women, those have now evaporated.

The most obvious comparable title to The Hangover is Old School, Phillips's earlier comedy celebrating male hedonism, which similarly lacked a major star. (In May 2003, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn's box-office glory days still lay in front of them.) That film opened on £742,000.

The Hangover's success is all the more remarkable given the weekend sunshine that depressed revenues across the market. Every holdover title in the top 15 fell more than 50% from the previous weekend, while new entrants The Last House On the Left, Looking for Eric and Red Cliff either underwhelmed or outright disappointed.

The first of these, a remake of a Wes Craven 1972 horror, took £392,000, compared with £535,000 for Drag Me to Hell (now in its third weekend). With My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, The Unborn, The Haunting in Connecticut and Drag Me to Hell all opening in excess of £1m this year, The Last House On the Left's result compares favourably only with The Uninvited's anaemic £343,000 debut.

Looking for Eric's opening salvo of £366,000 (including £43,000 in previews) would have been considered a strong result for Ken Loach, had expectations regarding this crowd-pleasing genre hybrid not recently risen to such lofty heights post-Cannes. It's the gritty film-maker's second biggest opening to date, behind only The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which was massively boosted by success in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – that film's £390,000 debut drew 73% of its takings from the Irish territories. But with a wide release on 239 prints, Looking for Eric's screen average diluted to £1,532. UK distributor Icon will be hoping that positive audience word of mouth will yet overcome the film's slightly faltering start.

With £153,000 from 189 screens, and an average of £811, Red Cliff is a big commercial disappointment for director John Woo. The expensive historical actioner had succeeded in Asian territories and earned positive reviews here, but failed to find much traction with British audiences. In this genre, Hero opened strongest with £1.01m, and The House of Flying Daggers took £533,000 on its first full weekend of release. More recently (in April 2007), Curse of the Golden Flower began its run with £352,000, viewed at the time as a weak result. Evidently Red Cliff failed to convince audiences that it offered something sufficiently new and different from those earlier releases.

The first of this summer's films to pass £20m is Star Trek, still the biggest of the season's blockbusters. Next most lucrative is Angels & Demons with £17.2m and Night at the Museum 2 with £17.1m. All these titles are a long way behind one of January's pictures – 2009 box-office champ Slumdog Millionaire has taken £31.5m.

Given the warm weather and the lack of a big-budget, big-hype new release, the top 15 films were an unsurprising 36% down on the previous weekend, when Terminator Salvation contributed a hefty £6.9m to box-office takings. The market is also 10% down on the equivalent weekend from 2008, when The Incredible Hulk was the highest new entry. Takings are set to surge again this Friday, with the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.